1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to machines for making cotton candy. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a device and method for continuous production of cotton candy and automated handling of the cotton candy in a way that collects and condenses the cotton candy for automated packaging.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Cotton candy traditionally is made by melting granular sugar in a spinning head that has holes around its periphery. The sugar liquifies due to contact with a heating element in the head, and is thrown outward through the holes by centrifugal force. The melted sugar exits the head as very fine thread-like strands which are cooled as soon as they reach the ambient air around the head, and return to a solid state. As long as the heating element is engaged and the head continues to receive sugar, the spinning head is capable of making cotton candy.
The head is commonly mounted atop a drive unit at the end of a drive shaft. One of the difficulties faced in making cotton candy is in the handling and control of the light and airy product as it is being made. Most often, the drive shaft passes through an opening in the bottom of a very large bowl that sits atop the drive unit to collect the cotton candy as it is produced. As the head spins out webs of cotton candy, it is collected around the perimeter of the bowl. Periodically, roughly every 30 to 60 seconds, an operator dips a carrier stick or paper cone into the bowl to remove a portion of the accumulated cotton candy for serving or packaging. Because of the constant need for the operator to monitor and participate in the collection and removal process, the traditional way of making cotton candy tends to be labor intensive. The tendency of the cotton candy to be very billowy, warm and sticky as it collects in the bowl, also can tend to make the process messy and more difficult to manage, further adding to the labor necessary.
There have been attempts to automate collection of cotton candy, but they have continued to rely on intermittent dipping into a collection bowl, by a series of sticks, paper tubes, or paddles, or otherwise lifting bundles of cotton candy upward and out of a bowl. Some of these attempts are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,930,043, 4,360,328, 5,292,238, 5,876,764 and 6,612,823. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,823, there is mention in columns 1 and 2, and depiction in FIGS. 27 and 28 of a prior art embodiment from Japanese Patent Application Laying-open No. 6-343394. The Japanese prior art represents another such attempt to automate, but includes a spinning head supported from above, while still spinning the cotton candy into a bowl from which it must be lifted with sticks. Even with those methods that try to automate a process of feeding accumulated cotton candy in a strand from a bowl, it appears that operator intervention would be required to restart the process if the strand were to break, and such equipment still appears as though it would require quite a bit of labor to deal with cleaning and maintenance of the fairly complicated equipment.
The prior art also includes some food processing equipment that includes use of rotating drums as coaters, to apply coatings to food products that are in small pieces, such as popcorn, nuts or gum. Such coaters commonly include some means to introduce spray heads or other inputs to add foreign substances that serve as the coating material to be mixed among the small pieces of the base food product. They also typically have agitators and some propulsion means that acts to stir the pieces of food and as a screw feed to propel the food through the drum. However, it is believed that to date nothing of this nature has been used in handling cotton candy, and especially not in the handling of such a delicate product or with the intention of creating and maintaining a continuous strand of such a fine, threadlike product.
It would be advantageous to be able to produce cotton candy on a continuous basis, without need for an operator to periodically manually remove cotton candy from a collection bowl, or be concerned with interruption of production. It also would be advantageous to be able to support and drive a cotton candy spinning head from above and to be able to inherently catch the continuous production of cotton candy as it falls due to gravity, as opposed to having to lift the cotton candy out of a bowl. It would be desirable to be able to automatically catch and form cotton candy into a continuous manageable strand of cotton candy for processing by automatic packaging equipment, regardless of whether it is made via use of a spinning head or other means such as a spray or extrusion device. It further would be desirable to be able to use very simple equipment in the handling of the cotton candy, to enhance the reliability, and minimize the difficulty in cleaning and maintaining the handling device.
The present invention addresses shortcomings in prior art cotton candy making equipment and processes, while providing the above mentioned desirable features.